Conor McGregor is arguably the biggest star in the world of Mixed martial arts. But that also leads to the discussion of who are the other stars that could bring in the numbers that ‘The Notorious’ is able to rake in. UFC commentator Jon Anik, in a recent conversation with Brendan Schaub on the ‘Foodtruck diaries’, lays out his answer to the question. While talking to Schaub, Jon Anik discusses the idea of McGregor’s return to the octagon; as well as why the idea that there are no other big names in the company is absurd.
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Jon Anik talks about Conor McGregor’s stardom and his itch to compete at the highest level
While talking about an eventual return for McGregor, Anik seemed confident that the Irishman would be back fighting in the octagon at one point. He also feels that McGregor, although financially well-off, can’t replace his passion for fighting with anything else.
“Conor’s gonna fight again in the UFC, like you know he is a fighter. He is a mixed martial artist, and this is what he wants to do. Like yeah, there’s a monetary component to it. But there’s no way for him to scratch the competitive itch that he’s trying to scratch anywhere else but the octagon.” said Anik.
Surprisingly, the 44-year-old felt that there probably won’t be anyone who will ever reach the pinnacle of stardom that McGregor did. “It’s always fun to me when people say like dude yeah, there’s never going to be another Conor McGregor, right? Like Paddy Pimblett is a star but like nobody’s gonna reach Conor’s level, I feel pretty convicted in saying that.” stated Anik.
Jon Anik believes there’s always a new star that follows the previous one
While many might argue that there is a dearth of a big star in the game right now. People fail to notice the fighters that have been able to pull in large PPV numbers. Anik shuts down this exact notion by claiming the likes of Paddy Pimblett and Israel Adesanya have consistently been a huge draw.
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“The notion that there aren’t going to be other stars. Right, like dude, I remember in 2017 we were having this conversation. And then Israel Adesanya goes on to headline like 25 percent of our pay-per-views for the next four years. And then Paddy Pimblett and Alex Pereira on and on it goes.” pointed out Anik.
Jon Anik clearly laid out a brilliant point in shutting down the idea that the promotion doesn’t have a superstar. Although Adesanya, Pimblett, and Sean O’Malley are stars in their own right, there’s no argument that the magnitude of stardom that McGregor has achieved is clearly not scalable in the near future.
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Do you think the UFC will eventually see a new superstar as big as Conor McGregor? Or are we way past the generation of superstars?
